2. Das Experiment (The Experiment)
Year 2001, Director Oliver Hirschbiegel, Starring Moritz Bleibtreau, Justus Von Dohnanyi, Christian Berkel, Oliver Stokowski, Andrea Sawatzki A chilling insight into human depravity, The Experiment takes its inspiration from the Stanford Prison Experiment, a 1971 American university research project that saw ordinary individuals assigned to the roles of prisoners and guards in a mock prison scenario. Soon after its commencement, the prisoners suffered from psychological abuse at the hands of the guards, becoming internalised to their roles before the experiment was cut short for safety reasons. The film focuses primarily on two individuals participating in a similar experiment Tarek, a taxi driver assigned to the role of a prisoner, who provokes the guards by refusing to submit to their authority, and Berus, a sadist assigned to the role of a guard, who becomes increasingly violent and humiliating in his efforts to stem Tareks undermining of him. The behaviour of Berus rubs off on those around him, creating an array of hostile guards as Tareks fellow prisoners become dehumanised, allowing for increasingly tense and shocking developments as this thriller progresses through its two hour run time.